Help for migrant workers may fall to charities

VALLEY CENTER - Jose Rodriguez lost everything he owned when the
Poomacha fire stormed onto the Rincon Indian Reservation on Tuesday
morning.

But he will not receive federal aid to help rebuild his
life.

"All I have are the clothes on my back," Rodriguez said in
Spanish, while standing in front of an evacuation center Friday
afternoon at Valley Center High School.

Instead, Rodriguez and his family will have to rely on the
charity of others because the Federal Emergency Management
Administration does not provide assistance to illegal
immigrants.

"I think that's wrong, because even though we are not from here,
we are human beings," Rodriguez said.

FEMA did not provide an official to comment for this story. But
a news release dated May 12 posted on its Web site says that
applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal immigrants to qualify for
financial assistance.

Illegal immigrants may be eligible only for "short-term,
non-cash aid," such as disaster legal services and crisis
counseling, according to the agency.

Rodriguez, a nursery worker, and his neighbors, most of whom are
illegal immigrants, lived in about a dozen trailers on American
Indian land they rented from tribal members. Shortly after the fire
began, the Rincon Band of Mission Indians opened the doors of its
hotel to migrant families for safety.

"We are very thankful," to the tribe, said Maria Martinez, whose
mobile home was also destroyed in the fire. "They treated us very
well."

Rincon Chairman Vernon Wright said that once fire officials told
him Friday that the reservation was safe, the tribe began to make
arrangements to reopen the casino. About 400 people used the hotel
and casino as an unofficial shelter.

Families whose homes survived the fire were allowed to go home,
Wright said. Some tribal members, including the elderly and a
number of residents of the hard-hit La Jolla Indian Reservation,
were allowed to stay.

Nontribal members whose homes were destroyed were relocated to
the Valley Center shelter, he said.

Several North County Indian reservations are home not only to
tribal members, but countless migrant farmworkers and their
families. They work in the surrounding agriculture fields, avocado
groves and nurseries, according to farmworker advocates and charity
organizations.

They are part of a shadowy population who make their homes in
migrant camps and makeshift communities under tenuous
circumstances, but whose labor is the backbone of the county's
agriculture industry, immigrant rights advocates say.

Some migrant families have lived on the reservations for
years.

Martinez, who said her family has lived on Rincon for 17 years,
said she woke up Tuesday morning when a sheriff's deputy drove by
her home asking everyone to evacuate. She said the family resisted
leaving because they had seen Border Patrol vehicles in the area,
she said.

Then, the fire rushed down the mountain "as if it were water,"
she said.

Her family lived off a small herd of goats and other small farm
animals, Martinez said. Her husband has been unable to walk without
crutches since he fell at work, picking avocados in a nearby grove,
she said.

All their animals died in the fire, Martinez said holding back
tears.

Aid workers said some of the migrant families from Rincon may be
eligible for federal assistance.

Families with children who are U.S. citizens can qualify for
help, such as money for temporary housing, home repairs,
replacement of property, according to the FEMA Web site.

"A minor child, who is a citizen, can have a parent or guardian
who is not eligible apply for assistance on the child's behalf,"
according to the government Web site. "The guardian only certifies
for the child. No information will be gathered on the adult's
status."

For those who are not eligible, charity organizations will help,
said Mimi Von Koughnett of Paradise Community Services, a nonprofit
that was born out of the 2003 wildfires.

At the time, the organization provided about 24 trailers for
fire victims, especially renters and farmworkers who were not
eligible for federal emergency aid.

"We went through this," in 2003," Von Koughnett said. "And we'll
do it again."

Rodriguez, who has no U.S.-born children and does not qualify
for federal assistance himself, said he doesn't need much, just
some help until he can find a place on his own.